“I have been given this task. It is still unfinished. Till I finish the tasks, there is no question of retirement,” he said.

This assumes significance as it virtually scotches speculation that AICC General Secretary Rahul Gandhi would replace him as prime minister in 2012 when the prime minister would be elevated as president.

At the same time, he made it clear that he was willing to make way for a younger leadership, if the Congress so decides.

Addressing the first national press conference in four years, the prime minister went on to reiterate his invitation to Rahul Gandhi to join the government as a union minister. He discussed the issue several times, but each time Rahul excused himself on the ground that he had a task on hand to revive the Congress in the country.

On his latest initiative to improve ties with Pakistan, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh unveiled a blueprint for reviving Indo-Pakistan relations.

At the domestic level, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said during his upcoming visit to Jammu & Kashmir on June 7, he would appeal to separatists, who were outside the political mainstream, to come forward for dialogue.

The prime minister defended the decision to revive the now defunct National Advisory Council (NAC) to be headed by Congress President Sonia Gandhi.

Denying the charge that it was a Super-Cabinet, the Prime Minister said that NAC was essentially an advisory body and provides a perspective on issues of social development.

Asked a personal question on who influenced him most, his wife Gursharan Kaur or Congress President Sonia Gandhi, he said the subject of advice from both was different and so he had no problems in following both.